Before getting into kayaking ouselves we used to go out with my sister in law, they had an inflatable boat with a minnkota 30 motor. To get the range they wanted they had two huge 60lb batteries in boxes that they had to carry and put in the boat each time. One time they went out on lake Erie for a short cruise, there batteries went dead and they ended up having to paddle back in, they didn't get back until the next morning exhausted. I vowed then and there to never do anything like that myself. Of course this is just my opinion here but a TI is very capable at both sailing and pedaling, we sail mostly in salt water and offshore which is completely different from fresh water and typically cover much greater distances. If I get into conditions where I can't make headway with my mirage drives and sails, typically from changing unexpected conditions or getting caught in currents like the gulfstream at that point I know I'm in very serious trouble. This has happened to us many times now sailing our TI off of Key West, first off the island is a tiny dot in the ocean, second the currents west of the Island are very strong (5-6 mph), we get out there everything is fine then the wind shifts and picks up, we now find ourselves tacking and pedaling as good as we know how, yet we are not getting back to the island, even if we can make headway tacking and pedaling as hard as we can we end up only going 1/2 mph VMG even though we are sailing 5-6 mph. We get back in 8 hours later totally exhausted. 98% of the time you only need the mirage drives and sails, my only reason for ever putting any motor on my boat is as a safety backup to insure I can get home if conditions change for the worse, the rest of the time it's just hanging there on the back of the boat. I'm already in trouble when I drop the motor in the water trying to save myself, running an electric at 1/4 throttle giving you 8 hrs run time at 2-3 mph is not going to help you here, your in dire straits and only full throttle along with peddling as hard as you can and sailing as efficiently as possible will get you home. Whether you have a torqeedo, or a Minnkota with twin 60 lb batteries it doesn't matter, you have about 20 minutes of power to get your self out of trouble. Lets say I'm two miles from launch, well I would be pretty mad if I got a half mile or so and the batteries go dead (not much help, "thanks for nothin"). We bought our first TI in April 2010 that same day we went out for a short sail, it took us 4 hours of peddeling and sailing as hard as we could to get back in (we were totally exhausted). I researched trolling and portable motors (torqeedos were not out yet), our choicees were a 15 lb minnkota and two 65 lb batteries (145 lbs) or a 20 lb gas outboard (26 lbs with 1 gallon of extra fuel). The electric with batteries was around $600 (has to be salt water), The gas motor was $500, I built my own motor mount from Pvc tubing which cost about ten dollars, and I would have needed for either option. We use the heck out of our TI and have it out most every weekend all year round. Since that fist day we have never taken our TI out without an outboard mounted to the boat (tilted up, just in case). The TI is a very large boat and that 20 extra lbs means absolutely nothing performance wise. Think about it if you have a second 200 lb passenger on board it doesn't slow the boat down. Only in the last yr or so did I get into Hybrid sailing with my wing sails and Hybrid motors. The only reason for that stuff is the typical winds around here are only 4-6 mph, that equates to sailing all day at 2-3 mph (mostly pedaling). I made a commitment to wife in order to purchase the TI initially to promise to pedal my boat at least 15 miles every week having no idea at the time thats 8 hrs of pedaling in our typical conditions. I spent four years out on the water every weekend pedaling my heart out thinking how to improve my situation. There was a flaw in our agreement never saying how long it should take to cover my 15 miles, so being the inventor I am (thats what I do for a living) I developed the wing sail and propulsion system I'm using today. I'm still out there pedaling my 15 miles every weekend but instead of taking 8 hrs, it takes an hr or so to get my 15 miles in (two hours if there is no or really light wind). I'm out there every weekend and have never used more than one gallon of fuel, normally less than 1/2 gallon. I wait for the day I can hang my gas motors up for good, but facts are facts, Electric propulsion won't be viable in my lifetime. Sad to say as an inventor and a really clever engineer this has been on the top of my list for many years now, I'm no closer than I was 5 yrs ago. Someday maybe. FE PS: If I had the money and was to buy an electric setup for my TI in my opinion the Torqeedo is hands down the best out there in my opinion. It all boils down to your needs, Personally I would never mount an evolve into the Mirage slot, I would much prefer a swing up mount, if I could tie a cord to the motor so I can swing the motor up and down from the cockpit and just use it as needed. My primary propulsion will always be my mirage drives and sails, having a little suplimental propulsion in very light winds would definately help, if you pedal all the time (like I do) the drain on your battery would be much less. My technique would be to provide 30% of my propulsion from pedaling, 30% from the sails (apparent wind), and the rest from the electrics. This would extend your range considerably even more with two peddlers.
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